When limitations foster creativity

[nmv83]

I recently got myself a Roland J-6 after a long period of being on the fence. On one side I was attracted by the low cost access to a HW synth with the Juno-60 sound, plus the ability to experiment with chords. On the other hand I was put off by the lack of access to the Juno-60 engine so that I could make my own presets and the simplicity of the device with a single octave keyboard. The thought of me making awesome new sounds based on Juno-60 felt like the right thing for me to do.

After two weeks I must admit, that the fact that I can’t sit and fiddle with the sound engine has forced me accept the great sounds that the machine does have, and actually start to create music. And because it is a HW device and not a DAW, there are few distractions to keep me from being creative…

So I guess what I am trying to say is, that keeping things simple really makes it easier for me as a beginner to start working on making music instead of sounds, which was what I wanted to do in the first place. And why am I writing this? Well, I guess this small revelation might be relevant to other new synthesists out there.

Enjoy life and enjoy music.

[DJCHEMIE]

I am trying to do this too. I recently got a new laptop specifically for music production. Because I had the chance to start from scratch, I only installed essential plugins and VSTs. Now I spend most of my time using Minilogue XD and Softpop 2, exploring what I can do,
create unique ideas etc. It definitely feels better and more relaxed. It comes easier.

I posted in the Interviews thread two quotes from two different people along the same lines.

I will reproduce here:

Interviews - mega thread

Fascinating interview. "What I have learned is that the volume of equipment you have can eat into your time, so we’ve got into the ethic of using one or two instruments and become quite prolific. "

Interviews - mega thread

There was some Kraftwerk discussion here lately. Timely interview! Sometimes I get the feeling that music culture today is made by computer scientists, because you need to always fill in a form… So, I work on the idea, write it down, and then I turn to the computer. In the early days of Kraftwerk we had a tape machine, and now I basically use the computer just as a recording tool"

[shigginpit]

that’s sound advice.

[Mistercharlie]

The MPE synths in Live 12 and the Push are incredible, but I too find myself forever fiddling. I got a Microfreak last week, plugged into the Push for FX, and for recording.

It was an instant boost to music making over tweaking. I love the Ableton synths, but also find that using them, especially on the Push, is fiddly. I really like the simplicity of the MF’s one-button-per function, paired with Ableton’s effects (Roar is especially great).

Then I just grab a sample and move on. Pro tip: I name the track in Ableton for the preset I used on the MF.

[Azzarole]

I used to rely on presets and sound packs for this reason, so that the music making is the focus and I can quickly get an idea running. I‘ve also been to a lot of concerts where someone is just playing a simple preset on their Minilogue and the sound barely does the job, but who cares in the context of a great live show with great songs. In these moments, I feel a bit like all this obsessing over sounds and features of a specific machine is a waste of time.

That being said, I‘ve learned to design more of my own sounds over time and come to appreciate it as a driver of creativity as well. I feel like my music is more „me“ now. A sound you design can also inspire the direction of a whole track. And sometimes it’s a lot faster to just make what you feel is fitting instead of browsing through hundreds of presets.

I love semi-complex sound engines for this, like ST, Rytm or Juno/101. They give you clear constraints and shortcuts that will guide you towards a good sound. This is the best of both worlds to me. And recognizing when you’re in the mood for just cranking out patterns fast with presets or basic sounds and when you’re more feeling like sound designing.

[Omar]

Fiddling with sound design, spending hours on a patch, layering, modulating, etc. is what I like most in electronic music. I don’t feel it’s a waste of time because I just enjoy the pure fun of doing that.

Where limitations worked for me is at the sequencer level: once I have my “pet” sounds, that I cherish for what they are, I use very basic (if not simplistic) sequences and sequencing features to play them. I’ve found that conditional trigs, microtiming, polyrhythm and all the bells and whistles of modern sequencing just distract me from what’s essential.

[nmv83]

The sound design is an aspect of electronic music and synthesizers that I do find interesting, and I want to get to that point eventually where I can make my own sounds. And I think that is also the reason why I have been hesitant to get a preset machine like the J-6.

I have a microfreak as well as a model:cycles, and while I love the sound of the microfreak, I often sit and just tune sounds without creating the music that I want to create. It is a great machine with many possibilities, but I think I just haven’t clicked with the sequencer. The sequencer in the J-6 clicked with me much more quickly.

I have a Model:cycles as well, and this one has a great sequencer, that I easily can get started with. And again a limited set of adjustment options for the sound engines, which for me is good at the moment. I considered the Digitones and Syntakt, but I’m glad I chose the Model:cycles as my first Elektron machine. With the others I would simply have been overwhelmed but the possibilities. Maybe som day I be ready for them.

[Omar]

I totally get what you mean about the Elektrons.
Actually, I own some of their flagship products (MnM, AR and MD), but they are indeed too deep for me. Not in the sense that I don’t understand them, but in the sense that they get me lost in experimentation, which distract me from actually making music.

[stiiiiiiive]

Count me in the “limitations help” team.

I started synth-ing on versatile, powerful instruments… only to go towards simpler ones over the years. One reason is that I do like that an instrument has its own character rather than it is able to sound like many. But the main reason is that less options allow me to focus on what’s important in the end of the day: melody, harmony, rythm.

I do like sound design. I do like experimentation. I do like connecting pedals in different orders etc. But years have taught me to know myself just a bit better and what gives me a real fulfillment feeling is writing a song with a piano, or finding a good gimmick with a simple sound.

I use the computer as a recording studio: recording and mixing. I use maybe 10-15 plug-ins only. Using virtual instruments would “kill the love” as french say.

A Wurlitzer, a Little Phatty, a Septavox, a Precision Bass, an Danelectro guitar, a MDUW, a microphone and maybe 10 pedals… that should be enough. I’m keeping a very interested eye on that NGNY thread… ahem…

[Mister_Wood]

I’ve come to understand that creativity depends on limitations. It cannot flourish without them.

Chasing new tools is futile, it’s dopamine-seeking, and cheap (well….), low-grade dopamine at that.
Creating is hard. Sometimes it doesn’t amount to anything useful, sometimes a piece of work can take weeks, months, even years of work, but buying a synth or whatever is a guaranteed feeling of satisfaction, though brief and often transient.
Creating takes work. There’s a part of the brain that jumps to the conclusion that if only a better tool was available, this work would be easier, more enjoyable, or it might even do the work for us. Tools allow work to happen, they do not cause work to happen.
Think back to your earlier days of creating: you likely had a limited palette and limited tools, and you probably turned out music very regularly.
Then as we progress, we see successful artists with large collections of expensive gear, and we subconsciously link these to the point of equivalency, aided by the advertising industry.

But really, what do we need? A thing for drums, a thing for bass, a thing for chords and a thing for lead, for most people, or something to just create sounds on. Tools aren’t meant to spark inspiration, and honestly inspiration is incredibly overrated anyway. Chasing inspiration is just another form of dopamine seeking, and dopamine does not get tracks finished.

Endless possibility means nothing will ever end. Pick a couple of things and learn them inside out, print your manuals out and make use of them. Do the work. Make the thing, don’t get attached or overanalyse, just finish it and move on to the next thing. For most of us, it will be heard by a handful of people once. Make it for yourself, not your audience, real or imaginary.

[blackeegreen]

@nmv83

hesitant to get a preset machine

I have very mixed feelings about my Volca FM2 for these reasons.

Oscillatorsink’s Synthmata editor makes it very easy to load DX7 / Dexed sysex patches, and the online interface is miles better than editing algorithms on the Volca itself, but at the end of the day the FM2 still feels like a preset machine.

I have a work trip coming up next week; 6 days in a remote northern BC town. I’ve been considering taking the FM2 (and the SP-404) with me to do a deep dive and see what I can get out of it - even though it does sound great, I’ve never found a place for it in my setup.

[stiiiiiiive]

Amen to that.

I’ve never put it into these words:

creativity depends on limitations. It cannot flourish without them.

… I must say it feels good reading it

[wouzer]

My one ball juggling act

Daily juggling meditation

[Mister_Wood]

Delete the presets, maybe apart from some basic structural ones to build from (piano/string/pluck etc), and force yourself to make something interesting, in the spirit of the thread. Those are powerful little devices once you open them up.

[Azzarole]

@Mister_Wood

Tools allow work to happen, they do not cause work to happen.
Think back to your earlier days of creating: you likely had a limited palette and limited tools, and you probably turned out music very regularly.
Then as we progress, we see successful artists with large collections of expensive gear, and we subconsciously link these to the point of equivalency, aided by the advertising industry.

There’s lots of great insight in your post and I generally agree. I‘d like to add a caveat though: Not everyone can make good music with every kind of hard- or software. I‘d say you first need to find a workflow and sound that speaks to you and enables you to make music.

I‘ve lost almost a decade trying to make music with Ableton, thinking it must be me if I can’t make a track with this powerful tool. Then I‘ve lost another two years buying and selling a lot of entry level synths, mostly by Korg, trying to make music with their arps or sequencing them with Ableton. Only when I bought my Digitone did it finally click for me, and I started making actual tracks. I‘ve lost some productive time again after that buying a lot of other gear, speaking to your last point. But I‘ve learned a lot about sound design and what doesn’t work for me in the process. Plus, there is something to be said about a piece of gear inspiring you to make music - and sometimes conjuring music out of you that you wouldn’t have made with another piece of gear. Especially Elektrons tend to bring me into a dialogue with the machine where we both figure out what we want to do together. So, it wasn’t a total waste of time.

If I had adopted the „it’s not the tools, it’s you“ approach before entering this cycle of buying and selling gear, I’m pretty sure I would have stopped making music by now. But I‘ve also lost a lot of time to the whole buying and selling process and would have been more productive if I kept my impulses in check better.

[Mister_Wood]

That’s absolutely true, and buying tools in and of itself isn’t the problem, it’s the relentless gear hunting that a lot of us are prone to that I’m talking about. Poor quality or inappropriate tools are unhelpful, and hanging onto things that don’t suit your working methods can be a significant problem too. Realising that isn’t always easy, either.

[nmv83]

GAS is hard to handle, and I admit that I almost always have a synth that I would like to buy. But I have started to reflect more, when the craving sets in, and most importantly I can just see that it is not the lack of synths that is limiting my music making, it is more the opposite.
I’m glad that I did buy the J-6, as I really click with this little machine and have started to actually make some music.